To this letter, President Lincoln at once made the following memorable reply:
"EXECUTIVE MANSION,
"WASHINGTON, Friday, August 22, 1862.
"HON. HORACE GREELEY
"DEAR SIR:—I have just read yours of the 19th inst. addressed to myself through the New York Tribune.
"If there be in it any statements or assumptions of fact which I may know to be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert them.
"If there be any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here argue against them.
"If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always supposed to be right.
"As to the policy I 'seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save it in the shortest way under the Constitution.
"The sooner the National authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be—the Union as it was.